Tuesday 29 December 2009

REFLECTIONS OF BIRDING 2009

Well here we are at the end of another year and almost another decade, where does the time go to.
Still its been a very enjoyable year getting out and finding all the birds and photographing as many as possible. Also the new Macro lens that I bought at the end of the Summer which has opened up a whole new world of photography for me, this I hope to use much more in the coming year.
 Also there is the Moth Trap to get back into action, where will I find all the time for these things? Add to this the Blog which has been the most exciting part as it allows me to bring all my interests together.

So to end the year I have posted a selection of Bird images from 2009 that I like to think of as some of my best shots, and hope you enjoyed them and will continue to do so in the coming year.
Finally a big thank you to everyone who has taken the time to visit and leave comments they have been greatly appreciated. It has been a pleasure to have made so many new friends, so to all of you I would like to say THANK YOU AND................



HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010.


















































Monday 28 December 2009

BACK TO NATURE

So after the christmas festivites it was nice to get out and enjoy some freah air. Took the drive up to Stithians Res to see if there was anything special about. Things on the water were very quiet with on a few distant Tufted Ducks and Gull on the main res. I then took the short walk across to the Southern Cutoff where I met Simon the Warden and Steve Rogers, They also comfirmed not much wildfowl activity but plenty of action around the feeders. After a few minutes chat they left to see if they cound find a Long Tailed Duck that had been reported the day before ( that would have been nice). I settled in to photo some of the feeder activity, after a short while the door opened and in came JR, Sue and Chris which was a pleasant suprise, it was good to hear about their trip to Gambia and all the things they experienced. So it turned out to be a very enjoyable morning nothing unusual on the bird side, but nice to catch up with some friends.

Below I have included a few images of the mornings Photo shoot.




Saturday 26 December 2009

PATCHWORK PART 3 CARN MARTH POST1

Starting from the previous post, I will do the first part of the walk up onto Carn Marth. I will break these down into smaller posts, I have done the complete walk but to put it all into one post would be to large.




Standing on the top of Lanner Hill this is the A393 leading down into Redruth with the Atlantic north coast on the Horizon approx 7 miles distant.


This is the view to the East my home village of Lanner is in the valley and the English Channel coast is 8 miles away.




CARN MARTH LANE



This is the view after we cross the A393 and start heading up the Carn. As you can see it was a very frosty morning.



A right turn around the first bend and the lane levels out for 100 yards.



Even at this low level the landscape is starting to open out and at the end of this part we come across an old Engine house part of the Pennance Consols mine system.



Granite information plaque for the Engine House.



PENNANCE CONSOLS ENGINE HOUSE.



Turning left we head on up the lane with the Engine house behind us.


The lane now climbs steadly up for 150 yards, on this morning it was very icy and slippery making walking quite difficult.



This is the top of this section of the walk and as can be seen we are getting a lot higher. in the next post I will get to the summit of the Carn which is 711 ft above sea level. Also there are one or two interesting places to look at.

Wednesday 23 December 2009

SEASON'S GREETINGS

No Picture post today as I wanted to convey a simple message. I would like to thank everyone who has taken the time during the last year to visit my Blog and leave comments these have been greatly appreciated. Also thanks to all of you who have Blogs, it has given me many hours of pleasure discovering and reading them. It has made me feel that we are part of a unique family all sharing a wonderful interest. So without any more words I would like to wish everyone........



A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS

AND A HAPPY , PEACEFUL AND PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR

2010.

THANK YOU.

Saturday 19 December 2009

PATCHWORK PART 2 CHAPEL HILL TO LANNER HILL


For the second part of the walk around my patch I would like to start at the junction from Chapel Hill (where we last finished ) to the top of Lanner Hill.


The picture above shows that this is still part of the Tresavean to Hayle Tramline.


This image is across the valley and my destination the top of Carn Marth which will be featured in another post.


At the first bend in the Tramline we enter a small wooded area, the wooden fence in the foreground is for safety as here is a small bridge spanning a small road beneath called "Rough Street" I hope to feature this area in a future post.



Just past the wood we enter the only cutting on this line, with its high sides and and dense vegatation this is a good area for birds , Butterflies and insects during the Spring and Summer.



Once past the cutting the landscape opens up again giving good views to the North and East over the Village.



Looking East over the village you can just make out in the distance some early morning mist still in the valley's, the horizon is about 10 miles away at this point.



Continuing on we are almost nearing the end of this part of the walk.



In places you can still see the old Granite Setts of the railway which make good stepping stones during wet weather.



This gate stops you exiting this part of the walk quickly as there is a road called "Red Road" running across it. This road got its name because when it rains all the colour from the mine excavations which are Red colours the water from Buller Downs which runs down this road.


From Red Road there is a small stretch of Tram about 25yrds to the road which connects with the top of Lanner Hill. The walled area on the left side is called Blight's Yard as when I was young a Stone Mason called Reggie Blight had his business here. Every day he would come to the house for some hot water for his Tea.



The cream bungalow was built about fifteen years ago and replaces the old bungalow on this site.
This is where I was born and lived until my early twenties,and have great memories of good times here with my five sisters and one brother of which I am the youngest. Times were hard my mother was widowed at an early age and left to bring up seven children and run a smallholding of 45 acres.
needless to say we all worked from an early age looking after animals and keeping the place running. But the door was always open and with numerous relatives and friends close by to help out it was a home buzzing with life and happy times. As you can see the tram runs along the front of the property giving views over Redruth and along the Cornish North coast.


The photo's for this post were taken on 10/12/09.


So here we are at the last picture of this post, looking from the  Tramline junction towards Lanner Hill. Just beyond the row of houses is the main A393 road from Redruth to Falmouth and opposite is the lane leading to the next part of the walk Carn Marth Lane. I will probably cover this next part in two posts and will wait for the right weather conditions to undertake it, as there are so many things to see and with good visability the views extend for miles.